Are Anzac Day poppies a food preparation health hazard?

A fast-food worker is taking legal advice after he was ordered to remove an Anzac poppy from his work uniform.

Josh Lucas, 21, said he was sent home from Burger Fuel Riccarton in Christchurch on Friday after he refused to take off the poppy. ?

Lucas, whose father and great-grandfather served in the military, is upset over the incident but has been advised by his lawyer not to speak to the media.

But earlier, he wrote on Facebook that the poppy is part of the history of this country and New Zealanders have always felt proud to wear it.

Store manager Dara Ny said Lucas had been disciplined over a separate issue when he was asked to remove the poppy.

Ny said the poppy represented a food contamination risk, but it was acceptable for staff to wear it for a few days around Poppy Day. (The next one is on Thursday.)

“We asked him to remove the poppy on the basis it’s just not part of the uniform and it can fall on to food. We’re happy for him to wear it closer to the day.

Lots of mixed messages here. ?Poppies are a food contamination risk except closer to Anzac Day, when they are either magically safe or we all allow our food to be potentially contaminated by a plastic poppy.

But if Josh can wear a poppy because it means so much to him, why can’t Alice wear the bracelet that her Grandma wore when she was doing something historically significant?

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.